The Ramblings Of Pipi

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My Story, Help much appreciated.

For those who are not new to my page, welcome back and I have updated the information below. For those who are, welcome!

My name is Pipi. At the age of two I was diagnosed with a disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa which is a condition affecting my eyes. I have been slowly losing my sight my entire life. While I have always been night blind and have never been able to drive, I lived a fairly normal childhood and teenage life. As a senior in high school I had to start enlarging some of my textbooks because they were too small for me to read.

I went through the next several years living as normal a life as possible, attending college, working in the childcare field, etc.

Over these years I have continued to lose more of my vision slowly. The change was small enough that I wouldn’t notice it for years. I would just carry on adapting however I could to continue living my life not really looking at the big picture.

Over the past year I’ve really noticed how much my vision has deteriorated. I now find myself unable to just adapt to what I have.

I currently live in a small town, population less than 1200. While this is a safe and friendly place to raise my daughter, I feel trapped. I am 20 miles from the nearest city. There is no public transportation to get there. I am unable to independently do simple things such as grocery shop at an affordable store, take my daughter to the doctor, get that prescription needed after business hours, and many other things that are taken for granted. I have to arrange for a ride in order to accomplish everyday tasks. I do not have the skills necessary to move to a larger city at this time. While I am currently employed, the children I care for are reaching ages where they will no longer need me. Being in this small town, I do not have other opportunities for employment.

I have taken the steps to attend a comprehensive training program at the Colorado Center for the Blind. I will be moving to the Denver area for 6 to 9 months. I’ll live in an apartment, use public transportation to get to and from the center, attend classes such as home management, travel, braille, and technology. I will do all of this while under sleep shades. I will learn to do all of these things and many more without using any of my remaining vision.

For those reading this who don’t know me, I am also a single mother of a beautiful, intelligent, four year old little girl named Savannah who is my life. I have been fortunate enough to work from home so that she has been able to be home with me everyday. We have never spent more than 48 hours apart since the nurses first placed her in my arms. The Colorado Center for the Blind have been wonderful in working with me as a single mother. My daughter is able to move to Colorado with me. She will need to be placed into childcare for the first time in her life while I attend classes. We will have a 2 bedroom apartment to ourselves instead of the usual arrangement of two people sharing it as roommates.

I have done research and learned quickly that childcare is very expensive. I will not be able to work while attending the training program. Since I am a resident of Kansas, I am unable to apply for state assistance through Colorado and Kansas does not pay for out of state childcare.

I have been researching grants, scholarships, and sponsors with little success so far. I will continue seeking funding. -

I am not very good at asking for help and this is a real struggle for me. I’m disappointed in myself for not being able to pay for my daughter’s childcare on my own. I am able to contribute one third of the total cost, but still have a large sum to raise. I am asking for help in my journey to make a better life for Savannah and myself.

I need to raise $5571.00 to pay for the other two thirds of Savannah’s childcare costs. I would greatly appreciate any help I can receive whether it be monetary, resources for donations, help spreading my story to as many people as possible, or any other support.

Update:

The original amount that I needed to raise has decreased by $1000 due to finding a child care center that is more affordable and actually more convenient as well.

Thanks to several generous donors, plus money I have been able to save, $2269.63 are sitting in the bank account set up for Savannah’s child care. 40% of the total amount needed has been raised!!

I am organizing three fundraisers and will have more information on them once I have final dates.

I am putting together a drawing. I am attempting to secure a larger prize, but so far there are $100 in Sonic Drive In gift cards, a picnic set, a gift basket full of adult beverages, and both a Kansas University and Kansas State University hand made quilt.

I have been given a start date of either the 2nd or 3rd week of August, so time is going quickly.

I plan to use my blog as a journal of sorts while attending CCB so that everyone who has been here to support me will be able to read about my progress, set backs, and growth as a person.

If you would like to contribute to helping me make a better life for myself and my daughter, you can donate through paypal.

You can also send donations to my home address, but I didn’t want to stick it out here for the entire world to have. Please feel free to ask and I will give it out.

I would like to ask that you please spread my story to others. Every resource, contact, and dollar will help.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I will never be able to express the amount of gratitude I feel in my heart for everyone who has and does support me in my journey. This has been a difficult change in my life and without having you to keep me going, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Megan,
Thank you so much for your support and kind words. I’m in awe and have been rather emotional tonight over all of the support I have received since I finally took the step to reach out for help.
I just hope that the words “Thank You” convey all that they mean in my heart.

Anjelina, I do have a couple of fundraisers in the works. I am planning a breakfast with a raffle here locally for this summer. Right now I am trying to collect donations from companies to give as prizes. If you have any ideas, I would appreciate them. So far I have collected sonic gift cards. I have a long ways to go.
Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and support.
I really couldn’t do this without y’all.

Hey Pipi, i’ll also throw in a little something within the next 3 weeks; have just moved, and am building my own fullscale studio which costs a fortune, but it will be an honour to help. Good luck with getting the money together, do let us know how you’re going.

I don’t understand why the music would come from here. There isn’t any music attached to my link. If you are wanting to read the content and can’t here, I would be willing to email you what it says. You can contact me at blahblahblah@iampipi.com
I hope you have solved the music issue by now.